There’s an old saying…
Quality not quantity.
This is something that seems to have been completely overlooked by everyone in the US when it comes to TV. What do I mean by that? Well read on and I am sure you will find out. You may not agree of course if you’re American but then, you’ve had a lifetime of being brainwashed so the rest of us will just smile knowingly and let you be.
I am all for people having choice even if it’s on quite a large scale – such as the number of TV stations over here in the US. However, for that choice to be worth making there has to be something worth choosing. And that’s where it gets somewhat trickier. The majority of stations here are crap. They have low production standards and low programing standards. Not to mention that some of the programs are just plain banal and how they get the viewing figures they do is quite beyond me and gives me grave concern for the intelligence of the average American. And they really don’t give a damn about you and me the viewers.
The whole system is populated by repeats. Both on a US wide basis, the same movie being shown by lots of networks, and on a local basis, the same TV station showing the same movie week after week. Why do they show a movie and then immediately repeat it? Surely in the interests of their commercial advertising they want viewers to stick with them? Not bugger off because they’ve just watched that particular movie. Obviously viewer loyalty is a concept they haven’t come across yet. And what’s with the proud boast they make “three chances to watch…”? Why the fuck would I (or anyone else) want to watch the same movie in the same peak time slot three nights in a row? And then they repeat it the next week, and the next week and so on. As a special note to TNT – just because you came up with the idea of labeling a movie a “new classic” doesn’t mean that it’s worth watching twice a week in prime time (whether it’s on the same night as you frequently insist on doing or whether it’s on separate nights) for the rest of time. Do you really care so little for your viewers?
As for commercials, well, I have lived in many countries and this is the only one that seems to insist on showing commercials with a program break rather than the other way around. I am used to watching a 30 minute show with ONE five minute commercial break – not having the intro credits role and then immediately having a word with their sponsors before the show is even underway – and then having more words with more sponsors every 5 to 10 minutes. It sucks and it’s insulting. How the heck have Americans let their TV stations get away with this crap?
125 TV stations and nothing to watch. After all, 125 x 0 = NOTHING.
Do what I did and get yourself a Netflix account. It beats US TV without having to even break a sweat.
I agree entirely! Bruce Springsteen I think it was wrote a song sometime in the 80’s called something like “57 channels and nothing on…”
Now it’s 157 channels (for those lucky enough to have satellite or a real cable company, unlike yours truly) and there’s still nothing on.
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Sigh. Yes, thank the Gods for Netflix.
Yes, mindless, bright and shiny is what most American TV seems to be about.
I wouldn’t be a knowledgeable one to speak however. I canceled my cable TV several years ago, tired of paying for 74 channels of, like you said, poor low budget programming/production and lots of loud bright commercials for stuff I don’t want and usually don’t care to hear about.
A majority of the commercials any more seem to be a war for drugs from the Pharma’s though.
With the combination of generally poor, unimaginative, shallow, nauseatingly predictable, repeat programming and barrages of screaming and insistent but very dull commercials, I felt like I was being robbed by being required to pay for the feed…that I almost never watched.
Yeah cable sucks. It amazes me how little concern they show for their audience with their programming. It really amazes me more that people keep buying the shit (I’m gussing) without saying anything to the provider.
Personally I am 100% against pharmaceutical companies being allowed to advertise precription only drugs. OTC medication is fair game I think but prescription drugs? God knows how much that prime time commercialism is adding to the hideously inflated prices they already charge. Just about any prescription medication is cheaper outside the US – that’s why they made it illegal to get drugs from Canada etc. And people stand for that shit. The only yardstick by which American health services are the best in the world is the one called “profit.”